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You're mathematically incorrect, unless you consider a typical worker saving 25% of their take-home "doing nothing". A typical take-home for a month's work in

You're mathematically incorrect, unless you consider a typical worker saving 25% of their take-home "doing nothing". A typical take-home for a month's work in US might be $3000. Cheaper rent could net you $300-$600 more, which is between 10-20% of your take-home. Not going to Starbucks every day, saving $5 a day let's say, works out to 5*30 = $150 bucks a month, a full 5% of the take-home pay. Is 25% really nothing? Maybe you make so much money that $450 bucks a month isn't a big deal, but most people don't see the insidious nature of costly habits and how they're spending thousands per year on their quality of living.

SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
Sure, Starbucks is negligible, but that much rent (assuming you're not in San Fran) makes the difference between a nice apartment in a nice location or a bad one in a bad location (or some such mix) in many place. There's all sorts of other implications that come with a better place that we can't necessarily chalk as simply extravagant unneeded spending.
hinkley 5y ago
I think where people get into trouble with fractions and especially where money is concerned, is in not realizing that lowering an expense by 1/4 means that the same money lasts 1/3 longer. I can't count the number of times I've had to explain to someone, especially in project roadmap discussions, that ±20% doesn't cancel out. 1.2 x 0.8 != 1.0. ±5% almost does, and people extrapolate to larger numbers and make strategy based on it.
- _carbyau_ 5y ago
  There is a fairground/fundraising con based on this. Customer gives you one or two dollars. You set up a card to keep track of a set number of coin flips - 10 say. The deal/catch: - heads = multiply their money by 1.25. - tails = multiply their money by 0.78. People will usually see +0.25 payout vs -0.22 cost instead of the actual fractional payout as you've already noted. The nice thing, is one person flips a coin and is the crowd pleaser, while another is the note taker. People can join at any time.

SketchySeaBeast 5y ago

Sure, Starbucks is negligible, but that much rent (assuming you're not in San Fran) makes the difference between a nice apartment in a nice location or a bad one in a bad location (or some such mix) in many place. There's all sorts of other implications that come with a better place that we can't necessarily chalk as simply extravagant unneeded spending.

hinkley 5y ago

I think where people get into trouble with fractions and especially where money is concerned, is in not realizing that lowering an expense by 1/4 means that the same money lasts 1/3 longer. I can't count the number of times I've had to explain to someone, especially in project roadmap discussions, that ±20% doesn't cancel out. 1.2 x 0.8 != 1.0. ±5% almost does, and people extrapolate to larger numbers and make strategy based on it.

_carbyau_ 5y ago
There is a fairground/fundraising con based on this. Customer gives you one or two dollars. You set up a card to keep track of a set number of coin flips - 10 say. The deal/catch: - heads = multiply their money by 1.25. - tails = multiply their money by 0.78. People will usually see +0.25 payout vs -0.22 cost instead of the actual fractional payout as you've already noted. The nice thing, is one person flips a coin and is the crowd pleaser, while another is the note taker. People can join at any time.